


Welcome to Fantasia Online!

by gummycola



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fantasia MMO, First Meetings, Gamer lingo, Gen, M/M, online chatting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-27 03:51:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17759261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gummycola/pseuds/gummycola
Summary: Alfred, a mentor who introduces new players to Fantasia, meets Arthur, who needs all the help he can get.





	Welcome to Fantasia Online!

Originally, Alfred had become a mentor in the Fantasia First Friend program for the gold drop boost and the monthly gift box.  
  
Don't judge! Those gift boxes contained _plaznimum_. Sweet, sweet plaznimum, the only material good enough to craft ammo for his babies, Betty and Ross, a pair of SSR+ level 50 enchanted Chronos Pistols.  
  
So, he'd signed up and began to show newbies the ropes. It wasn't half bad. Sure, every now and then he'd get a bot, or some moron spamming the jump button and emotes—but usually, folks were happy to meet a real person instead of an NPC or a text box.  
  
It gave Al a chance to appreciate the different starting areas across Fantasia too. He'd power leveled with Kiku, rushing to the level cap to get all the flashy end game loot. He hadn't taken the time to appreciate the craftsmanship of the world of Fantasia.   
  
Plus, now and then, a grateful mentee would send him a thank you gift. That was pretty cool.   
  
Al was halfway through his dailies, monitoring the auction house for the last stack of blubbers to craft Mattie's boots, when he got a notification.   
  
_A new explorer has come to Fantasia! Come to the Fawn's Forest to welcome King_Albion to the world!_    
  
Ugh. Fawn's Forest was the starting area for the Fae, who were usually a little too serious for his tastes. (Who would choose the 'pursuit of all knowledge' as a goal in a video game?) Plus, the first dungeon in that area, Oberon's Nightmare, always gave Alfred the creeps.  
  
Oh well. He could use the boost, blubbers didn't come cheap. He clicked the notification and was teleported to the sparkling twilight of the forest, where a pale, green-cloaked elf was standing by a dead wolf.  
  
**_theLiber8or:_** _heya there! what an honor to meet a king :p i'm Al, and i'm a mentor here to help you learn about fantasia._    
  
Al leaned back in his seat waiting for an answer. He checked the auction house again. The cheapest price was still 400k, highway robbery, and it wasn't even a full stack. He shot off a whisper to Kiku asking if he had any blubbers to spare.  
  
The elf wasn't answering. That wasn't unusual. Some people just ignored him and went off on their own, which was fine. Al opened the map to teleport away, but noticed that the elf was... twitching.  
  
He was moving every few seconds, just a tiny bit, in different directions. Then he sat down. Then he opened his pack. Then he opened his journal—  
  
**_theLiber8or:_** _my guy. you gotta click into the text box or press enter before you type._  
  
The elf stopped twitching. Al finished off his soda and checked Kiku's reply—no blubbers.  
  
**_King_Albion:_** _What sort of mentor can't use proper capitalization?_    
  
He popped the top on a new can of soda and read the message again. Was this guy—this _noob_ seriously complaining about his grammar in an mmo?  
  
**_theLiber8or:_** _the kind of mentor who's gonna leave you alone to die in the woods ;) good luck your majesty_  
  
He usually tried to have more patience with new players, but the Fae were always so sassy.  
  
**_King_Albion:_** _Hold on. We got off on the wrong foot there. Let's try again. I'm Arthur, and I have no bleeding clue what I'm doing._  
  
Alfred laughed aloud at that, but used his hero emote to give Arthur a thumbs up and a smile.  
  
**_theLiber8or:_** _no worries! we'll get ya started. have you played online games before?_  
  
_**King_Albion:** Does chess count?_  
  
**theLiber8or** laughs at **King_Albion**  
  
_**King_Albion:** Oi oi. Don't laugh at me. How are you doing that?_  
  
_**theLiber8or:** all in good time young padawan. ok, you killed the wolf right? so you got a weapon and you can attack..._  
  
_**King_Albion:** I just panicked and hit the keys and it died. By the way, the red bar went down a lot when I did that. And the blue bar too. That's bad isn't it? _  
  
Oh man. Al was in for it.

 

* * *

 

 

Five hours later, Alfred was startled by the alarm letting him know it was time to get up and go to school. Which would have been useful, if he'd been asleep.  
  
It had been hard going, teaching Arthur the very basics of computer gaming while trying to keep him alive in the dark and dangerous forests of the Fae, but it was hard not to feel excited when the summoner jumped up and down and spammed the applause emote with every minor discovery.  
  
Plus, he'd coaxed Arthur into the Discord and had him on voice chat and _damn_ , what was up with British accents?  
  
Thoroughly charmed and enjoying the game more than he had since he'd started playing, Al had chugged a Red Bull and waved Matt's concern away when he'd smooched him goodnight hours ago.  
  
"Alfred! My flying mint bunny leveled again. He can shoot sparkles—” Arthur paused to giggle-snort, "It looks like they're coming out of his arse, look!"  
  
Alfred yawned and blinked tiredly at the sparkly farts.  
  
"That's dope as hell, but I gotta get going. S'time for class."  
  
Arthur was silent. The sound of the village they were visiting buzzed loudly in his ears. The repetitive chattering of NPCs and the clop of hooves on an endless loop were lulling him to sleep.  
  
"C-class? You've got class?! You've been up—oh heavens, the time difference. How... what sort of class?"  
  
What sort of class? That was a weird question, but Arthur was a weird guy. Fae and their pursuit of knowledge.  
  
"It's an anthropology course for my minor. It's like, intro to... ethnography or something. I gotta get some grub. I'll hit you up tonight though, 'kay?"  
  
Alfred scooted out of his PJ pants and pulled a pair of jeans out of the drawer. The joy of a dorm room, everything was close at hand. If he left in the next ten minutes, he'd have time to get McDonald's. And coffee. So much coffee.  
  
"You! You need to sleep tonight you—honestly, you shouldn't have stayed up so late. I'd just heard so much about the story of this game, but I could have... I'd have figured it out."  
  
Alfred laughed, his usual chirp dampened by exhaustion. "You couldn't figure out how to put on shoes, Artie."  
  
"Now that's—“  
  
"Plus, it was fun! I really enjoyed playing with you Art. I wanna show you more of the game! We haven't even reached your first dungeon."  
  
Arthur was quiet again. Alfred slapped deodorant on and patted uselessly at his hair. A gravy biscuit, hashbrowns, coffee, an apple pie—

An amused voice cut through the thoughts he hadn’t realized he was saying aloud. “Are you... Is that your breakfast menu?” “You'll have to explain 'gravy biscuit' later. Sounds awful. Go get some food though... and, er, I'll see you later. Don't fall asleep in class!"  
  
He logged off suddenly, and Al studied the computer screen in bemusement before shaking his head with a fond smile.  
  
He'd never paid attention to the story of Fantasia before. He was looking forward to the adventure. 


End file.
